Romeo And Juliet Act 4 Scene 5 Essay

Act 4 scene 5 gears the audience up for the catastrophe of the death of Romeo and Juliet. Juliet has just taken the vial of Friar Laurence’s potion and is in an almost dead state. The grief demonstrated by her family is intensified with her father’s personification of death. Capulet describes, “Death lies on her like an untimely frost / Upon the sweetest flower of the field” (4.5.28-29). Shakespeare describes Death like a human or personifies Death to dramatize the moment. In this scene, the personification of Death shows the audience her father’s deep grief for his daughter. He goes on to describe Death as Juliet’s husband who has taken her from him allowing us to feel his grief and almost imagine Death taking Juliet away (4.5.36-40). This

Now instead of a wedding, they have to host a funeral and mourn for their daughter. Capulet’s statement also leaves and impression on the audience later when Juliet truly dies because not only do they have to mourn her death once but twice. The impression of wedding celebrations to funeral preparations relate to the relationship with Romeo and Juliet as well. They got married just to die not even three days later. The audience remembers these lines through the repetition and the way they make them mourn the young couple’s untimely death when they should have been celebrating their wedding. Finally, this scene includes comic relief or a funny moment to give the audience a break before the catastrophe of Act 5. The musicians argue and provide some banter to show the audience that Juliet’s fake death was important and traumatic for the family. Shakespeare includes comic relief to allow the audience to take a step back and to recover from the previous actions, and in this case that is Juliet’s “death”. This also contributes to the entire play because it gives you a “calm before the storm” feeling. This light argument with very minor characters gives the audience the right amount of humor to lead them into the catastrophe. The contrast of the two moods also makes the catastrophe so much more catastrophic because you had just